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The Weekend Review: September 2012 Report

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By Chris Moore:

North (Matchbox Twenty)

Producer: Matt Serletic

Released: September 4, 2012

Rating:  3 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Parade” & “She’s So Mean”

When a band rises to the heights that Matchbox Twenty did, putting out one quality album after another across six years, then takes a ten year break from recording albums, it should go without saying that the expectations are high for a return effort.  To be fair, the band did punch out an EP as an incentive to push sales of their greatest hits album in 2007, but aside from that, there has been no true album-level effort from them since 2002’s chart-topping More Than You Think You Are.  And even the EP, offering the first full-band collaborations on songwriting credits, suggested the new and dynamic paths of which they were capable.  So, again, expectations for a new album would have to be high.  Then North arrived in 2012.  The cover (with its minimalist, plain white design) and packaging (a digipack lacking artistic direction and a booklet offering nearly all text: legal credits and thank you’s) are indicative of a sense of autopilot being engaged throughout the record, particularly after the dynamite opening trio of songs.  “Parade” is a gorgeous opener and probably the best track on the album, though it would probably have been a mid-album deep track on their previous efforts.  Then, “She’s So Mean,” the single, powers out of the gate, and it is a fun track, if a bit more two dimensional than one has come to expect from a Matchbox Twenty song.  “Overjoyed” follows up with a slow, acoustic opening and a build to a lush, catchy refrain.  The next two tracks are solid, though again nothing that would have made it higher than midway on previous releases.  The remainder of the album (with the sole exceptions of “This Way” and perhaps “How Long”) fails to capture the spirit of anything more than a predictable series of songs.  There are attempts at dynamism, but they largely fall flat, as though the songwriting ended one minute into the composition and the “repeat” button was stamped down.  If mine is too harsh a criticism, then so be it, but if the band wasn’t ready to top or at least meet their previous records, each of which offered something new while clearly being in line with previous efforts, then perhaps they should have waited several more years to return. 

 

 

 

Tempest (Bob Dylan)

Producer: Bob Dylan

Released: September 10, 2012

Rating:  5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Pay in Blood” & “Long and Wasted Years”

I’d have a hard time giving any album of newly written and recorded Bob Dylan music less than a positive review.  That being said, as my review of 2009’s Together Through Life exemplifies, I will not hesitate to assign his work a critical score.  (For the written record, looking back now, I would give the album at least 4 if not 4.5 stars, but I’ve had three years to listen repeatedly and pick up on all the wonderful nuances that are available on most Dylan records.)  My point in bringing this up is to reinforce the fact that, for me, a 5 star review is no trivial matter.  Tempest, Bob Dylan’s latest, is truly an achievement.  If Time Out of Mind (1997), Love and Theft (2001), and Modern Times (2005) have been referred to by critics as a trilogy of sorts, then Tempest feels like the second installment in what we can only hope will be another trilogy.  As in most great three-part series, the second is often the best for so many reasons.  In this case, speculation and externally imposed organizational systems aside, Tempest has all the makings of a great album.  In some ways, the sound is clearly an extension of Together’s, particularly with the inclusion of the accordion.  However, there is something darker, deeper about Tempest, and there is more looming here than on the previous record.  The sequencing, particularly in the upper half of the order, is brilliant: opening with an instrumental at partial volume for “Duquesne Whistle” that begs to be played on a record player, yet quickly livening the pace as the true song unfolds; following with the brief (especially for Dylan, but also by normal standards) but beautiful, touching “Soon After Midnight;” rolling into the riff-driven “Narrow Way” that conjures the spirit of “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” without sounding like a retread; transitioning to “Long and Wasted Years,” which presents an aura of (good) eighties Dylan and some of the best lyrics he has presented in years (which is saying something!); and amping it up with “Pay in Blood,” surely the best rocker since 2001’s “Honest With Me,” though why George Receli wasn’t directed to be more heavy hitting on the drums, I’ll never understand (thanks to Mike Fusco, songwriter and drummer extraordinaire for pointing this out to me).  The second half of the album is dedicated to longer and, in a few cases, story-driven tracks.  “Scarlet Town” drips with details and fully comes to life in a haunting manner.  “Early Roman Kings” is perhaps the sonic standout here, running along an accordion-driven riff with lyrical content that could only be properly conveyed via Dylan’s ragged vocals with his uniquely devastating yet wry delivery.  A winding tale of murder and darkly shadowed honor is the topic for “Tin Angel,” and as it spans over nine minutes at a ponderous pace, it is almost as though Dylan is daring his listener to follow each detail without fail – a difficult task for anyone with a modern day attention span – which only further strengthens the theme of the track.  The penultimate track, the title track, is the one song here that I have skipped regularly after repeated lessons.  It fits superbly here, thematically at least, as it chronicles the historical epitome of hubris and imminent tragedy across nearly fourteen minutes: epic length for an epic topic.  Perhaps it is my generation’s experience with the film version of Titanic that weakens my interest here, but Dylan incorporates even that retelling of the tale in a way only he ever could.  As a final track, Dylan does something he has not often done (“Song to Woody” and “Lenny Bruce” comes to mind, but not many others): presents a direct tribute naming the honoree without obfuscation or metaphorical distortion.  “Roll On, John” offers an interesting new take on a form that Ringo Starr has experimented with (typically to perfection) yet this comes from an outside perspective that is also somehow an insider’s point of view.  All in all, Tempest has it all: artful lyrics that beg interpretation and admiration delivered by a singular voice in modern music, as Dylan’s has always been, presented on a foundation of strong, intricate, and subtle instrumentation that runs, walks, and breathes in all the right places, belying a band the core of which has been together, more or less, for well over a decade.  The tracks work together as parts of a greater whole, and when “Roll On, John” fades out, it should be the rare listener who is not drawn back in by the jazzy lap steel, piano, and acoustic guitar that herald the return of “Duquesne Whistle.” 

 

 

The Sound of the Life of the Mind (Ben Folds Five)

Producer: Joe Pisapia

Released: September 18, 2012

Rating:  5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “The Sound of the Life of the Mind” & “Michael Praytor, Five Years Later”

Ben Folds Five were always a dynamic group, from the very first bars of “Jackson Cannery” on their self-titled 1995 debut.  Whatever and Ever Amen (1997) is probably one of the best albums of all time, and 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner deserves to be one of the best-remembered concept albums of the past few decades.  This all being established, The Sound of the Life of the Mind is something different than they have ever produced.  In terms of great albums, it is the truly complete package, presenting as it does the perfect blends and ranges: between anger, sadness, nostalgia, and self-empowerment; between personal, introspective songs and biting social commentary tracks; and between high octane rockers and tear-your-heart-out ballads, though strongly inclined toward the former.  The album clearly bears the mark of band members who mastered their craft and perfected their chemistry yet haven’t had the opportunity to exercise that expertise in well over a decade (with the exception of their Unauthorized Bio live concert on the internet several years back).  On The Sound of the Life of the Mind, Darren Jessee’s drumming is lively, energizing, and inventive, Robert Sledge’s bass is delivered at such breakneck rates that the intricacy he accomplishes shouldn’t be possible, and Ben Fold’s piano elements are brilliant as ever and then some (for someone who doesn’t play beyond chords on the keyboard, I lack the words to properly convey what it is that makes Folds’ method on the piano quite so captivating and clearly skillful, but that does not diminish my ability to at least detect it).  More to the point, this album deserves a five star rating for the fact that a breakdown of the standout tracks would include just about every song on the record.  “Erase Me” sets the tone for sequence to come, firing through a series of imperatives that, like much of Ben Folds’ best work, borders on the autobiographical.  “Michael Praytor, Five Years Later” introduces a new individual into the vast community of Ben Folds Five characters, aligning Michael’s persona with the very relatable topic of people who come into and out of one’s life over the years.  As Folds sings, “Who knows why some satellites come by and by while others disappear into the sky?”  Michael Praytor is the quintessential satellite personality.  The next track follows the question into the sky, presenting the only BF5 song – Jessee’s “Sky High” – other than his 1999 song “Magic” to be written exclusively by someone other than Folds.   The title track again introduces a new individual into the BF5 cast of characters, another named Sara (intentionally or otherwise conjuring 2001’s solo Folds track “Zak and Sara”).  I could check the spelling, of course, assuming that a lyric booklet were included with the CD packaging; unfortunately, the otherwise gorgeous and well-executed artistic vision for the package does not include the words, a serious deficiency for an album that features such interesting, well-written lyrics.  A leftover from the Nick Hornby/Ben Folds writing sessions for Lonely Avenue (2010) follows in “On Being Frank” (Sinatra), a solid track that fits in seamlessly here and highlights the possibilities for orchestration that weren’t explored before Unauthorized Bio.  The next two tracks – the supremely catchy and wittily biting “Draw A Crowd” and the uplifting, quasi-Emersonian “Do It Anyway” – accomplish the unusual: they bring album opening power and quality to the second half of the record.  The sequence continues with the strong “Hold That Thought” before winding down to the emotionally hard-hitting “Away When You Were Here” and “Thank You for Breaking My Heart.”  From start to finish, The Sound of the Life of the Mind is a serious accomplishment and is just the sort of magnificent reunion release one would expect from a band of Ben Folds Five’s caliber after over ten years on hiatus.  Any time they are capable of this sort of artistic vision and production, they need to put it all together: if that takes another ten plus years, it will be well worth the wait. 

 

 

 

Moms (Menomena)

Released: September 18, 2012

Rating:  4.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Plumage” & “Pique”

After 2010’s Mines, going back to the studio to prepare a follow-up must have been an intimidating task.  And yet, Menomena has returned a brief two years later with another masterful release in Moms.  True to their signature, the band continues to experiment with new sounds, both vocal and instrumental, and mostly with conventional means.  This is the rare band I have listened to that seems to possess an instinctive understanding of the line between too weird and too conventional.  Particularly here on Moms, the best songs (i.e., most songs on the album) are catchy, adrenaline-fueled rockers that consistently defy conventions of the form.  It is the playing with percussion on “Plumage,” the use of horns and general ambience on “Capsule,” and the perfect convergence of staccato brilliance on “Pique” that propel the opening of this album.  The songs that follow are never quite as concisely perfect as the first three, but “Skintercourse” is brilliant work and tracks like “Baton,” “Heavy Is As Heavy Does,” and “Don’t Mess with Latexas” are energetic, fascinating experiences in soundscaping.  And all this is not even to mention the artfulness of the lyrics throughout, a close reading of which would merit (deservingly) much more space than I’ve given myself for this review.  This is one of those albums that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to even five or six years ago, and I would have been missing out on something truly exciting.  Although it won’t make the rounds at mainstream awards shows and top ten lists at the end of the year, you should do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.

 

 

 

¡Uno! (Green Day)

Producer: Rob Cavallo and Green Day

Released: September 21, 2012

Rating:   2.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Stay the Night” & “Nuclear Family”

The way that Rolling Stone and other mainstream critics have praised this first in a trio of albums from Green Day, you would thing they equaled the artistry and intention of the past coupld Green Day concept albums. And no one can accuse the songs on Uno! of being less than energetic, but no one should really be praising them for their quality, either.  After the first two tracks, not much rises above the line of predictability, and if this is any indication of how the next two albums will be, then perhaps someone should have told the band to take the best songs from their sessions to release one strong album and save the rest for rareties releases.  Instead, they receive all the praise in the (mainstream music) world for pumping out tracks that fall far short of the artistry we’ve come to expect on recent work over the past decade and beyond, and one can only hope they won’t take this as a sign that plateauing is okay. 

 

 

 

Babel (Mumford & Sons)

Producer: Markus Dravs

Released: September 21, 2012

Rating:  3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “I Will Wait” & “Lover of the Light”

What can I say?  The signature sound that Mumford and Sons have established works for a reason: they’re passionate and strike a balance between throwback/folksy and in-your-face/high energy.  On Babel, “I Will Wait” is a fantastic track, and “Holland Road” and “Lover of the Light” are pretty freakin’ great.  Even the title track ain’t half bad.  And yet, after that, the rest of the album falls into line and blends together.  How their fame has become so infectious, I’ll never understand.  They are clearly a passionate band and make some good music, at least one truly great track per release, but I can’t explain or join the bandwagon following they’ve developed.  

The Top Ten Rock Albums of 2009 – The Weekend Review

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By Chris Moore:

Welcome to The Weekend Review in a different time slot, as the first part of a Chris Moore Monday two-fer.  This week, I took a look – and a listen – back at all of the great and, well, not so great rock music of 2009.  While I plan to release many mini-articles and lists over the next couple weeks, this seemed like a topic of enough substance for a full Weekend Review report.  So, without further ado, here are the top ten rock albums of 2009…

Honorable Mention:

My Old, Familiar Friend – Brendan Benson:

Better known this decade as “the other singer/guitarist” in the Raconteurs, Brendan Benson released a power pop gem this year in My Old, Familiar Friend.  Track after track, this album harkens back to some of the best, Byrds-iest sounds of the sixties.  This is not to say that it is overly derivative, but it is certainly a throw-back and will be a blast for any fan of tight, poppy classic rock songs.  And “A Whole Lot Better” is a nod to “Feel A Whole Lot Better,” right?

Number Ten:

Keep It Hid – Dan Auerbach:

Even though I initially rated this as a “Maybe Not” in my one-sentence review back in February, I have found this album to have a lot of staying power.  I remember thinking that this album might not wear well, that it would lose its initial luster upon too many listens.  And yet I’ve found just the opposite to be true.  Although Auerbach may be working solidly within a certain genre and sound, he stretches a considerable amount within that classification, incorporating a range of instruments – most notably acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and keyboards.  The songs range from gritty blues to soothing acoustic ballads to scorching rock numbers and back again several times before the album is over.  “Trouble Weighs a Ton” and “Goin’ Home” are fitting bookends for an album that deals largely in the distortion-drenched currency of the rock guitar soloist.  “My Last Mistake” channels the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  “Heartbroken, In Disrepair” and “Mean Monsoon” make you wish you could play like this.  In the end, this is only Auerbach’s first solo effort, and it certainly doesn’t show.

Number Nine:

Working on a Dream – Bruce Springsteen:

I will be the first to admit that Bruce Springsteen is an over-hyped artist, particularly by such popular rags as Rolling Stone, and yet the man can still produce an album.  Or, rather, Springsteen and his band.  You know, the E Street Band.  You may have heard of them.  Working on a Dream is thematically and sonically interwoven from start to finish and offers up some very interesting tracks to balance out the more formulaic ones.  “Queen of the Supermarket” is a classic story in song, written and sung as only Springsteen ever could.  “Outlaw Pete” provides an unusual but fitting opening for the album.  “What Love Can Do” is the track that would have attracted the interest of rock music fans back in the days when rock ruled the radio waves.  “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Life Itself” are as beautiful as “The Last Carnival” and bonus track “The Wrestler” are bittersweet.  This provides proof positive that even this far into the game, the Boss is still progressing, maturing, and making great music.

Number Eight:

Horehound – The Dead Weather:

Better known to many as Jack White’s second side project, the Dead Weather have found a niche all their own, experimenting with the odd, the abstract, and the obscure.  If the Raconteurs provide a channel for White’s more mainstream rock leanings, then the Dead Weather more than satisfy the other end of that spectrum of musical desire.  From start to finish, you can’t quite be certain what they will throw at you next – “they,” of course, meaning lead singer Alison Mosshart, guitarist Dean Fertita, bassist Jack Lawrence, and drummer (that’s right, drummer!) Jack White.  “I Cut Like a Buffalo” is great metaphor and great rock.  Others, like “Hang You From the Heavens” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” are best described as infectious.  “New Pony” is the musical equivalent of finding a decimated muscle car in a junk yard, rotting away, and rebuilding it to shine with the best of the modern sports cars.  The first half of this album is admittedly stronger than the second half, but this is a debut effort, after all.

Number Seven:

Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane – Elvis Costello:

There couldn’t be an album more out of touch with the sounds and textures of modern music, and yet so inherently attuned to the emotions and undertones of that same aforementioned modern music.  As I mentioned earlier this year, these tracks sound like they could have come straight off of American folk music figure Harry Smith’s shelf.  Finally, I repeat, this is an acoustic album that sounds original and truly acoustic.  So many acoustic records of late have been helmed by otherwise successful rock artists looking for a way to stir up their recording process.  This feels more authentic than that.  “Sulphur to Sugarcane” is wonderfully humorous, less subtle than it is chauvinistic.  “Hidden Shame” and “Complicated Shadows” are so fun that you’ll quickly forget that they’re scaled-back numbers, while there is no ignoring the stark sadness in “I Dreamed of My Old Lover,” “How Deep is the Red,” and “Red Cotton.” 

Number Six:

Wilco (the album) – Wilco:

Few bands could pull off a song like “Wilco (the song),” but Wilco are not like other bands.  They’ve been everywhere – alt-country, folk rock, experimental music, alternative rock, jam-mentality work – and now they’ve arrived at a wonderfully entertaining conglomeration of many of their styles from the past fifteen years.  The aforementioned track is sincere and explores the true power and potential for healing that music provides.  “Country Disappeared” takes a bleaker view of things, while “Solitaire,” “I’ll Fight, and “You Never Know” take a more positive angle.  And, of course, “Deeper Down” and “Bull Black Nova” hint at the experimental possibilities that await us on future Wilco recordings…

Number Five:

Humbug – The Arctic Monkeys:

Humbug, for me, is one of the best albums of the year by a band that has stirred up much controversy over their excellence or lack thereof, depending on who you ask.  This should be a breakout album, a set of songs with the potential to unite – if only fleetingly – the sensibilities of fans of classic rock, punk rock, and more modern rock.  I was certainly surprised at how much I enjoyed this release, and it’s so wonderfully sequenced with sounds layered in all the right ways to keep you coming back to the individual tracks as well as the album as a whole.  “My Propeller” sets the tone for the record wonderfully.  “Cornerstone” is, well, the cornerstone for this release – it’s a witty, subversive little track that I can’t get enough of.  “Crying Lightning” and “Dance Little Liar” are driving, quirky, and catchy gems.  “Fire and The Thud” is a highpoint at the midpoint.  Although I would never have guessed it before this year, I will now be awaiting the next Arctic Monkeys release with excitement.

Number Four:

The Ruminant Band – The Fruit Bats:

The Fruit Bats put out a little disc called Spelled in Bones a few years ago.  I had it recommended to me, so I listened and even liked several of the songs.  After a few listens, though, I got tired of it.  It faded.  But there was something about the sound of the Fruit Bats that I found fantastic, and I felt like I saw more potential in them than they had managed to make good on.  I expected the same here, but what I found in The Ruminant Band was a quirky, catchy, lyrically provocative, and instrumentally exciting record.  I can find no better way to say it: this is one of absolute favorite little albums of the year!  The title track is straightforward, but fun.  “Tegucigalpa” is less straightforward and more heartfelt.  “Singing Joy to the World” is the best acoustic song to be released in a good long time.  “Primitive Man” is one of those great songs that you can entirely lose yourself in as you listen.  This is a home run for the Fruit Bats, one I didn’t see coming and yet couldn’t be more excited about.

Number Three:

Backspacer – Pearl Jam:

Let me start off by noting that this is simply not Pearl Jam’s best material.  Moving past that, let me continue by saying this is one of Pearl Jam’s most cohesive efforts since their debut Ten.  Track after track, this is a Vedder-led attack of tight, finely chiseled rock songs with some real gems.  As the title implies, the thematic common-ground throughout the record is that of assessing the issues at hand and erasing obstacles, bad blood, and just about everything that stands in the path to peace, independence, and self-confidence.  “Got Some” is one of their best efforts ever, which is really saying something.  “The Fixer” and “Supersonic” are perfect tours-de-force and redefine what great Pearl Jam tracks may sound like in the coming years.  “Just Breathe” is the closest they’ve gotten to a love song, as Vedder put it in an interview.  At every turn, Backspacer pleases and at just about a half hour in length, this is an album, that can be played over and over again. 

Number Two:

21st Century Breakdown – Green Day:

Up until the number one band on this list released their masterpiece, I thought that this would be the top album of the year for sure.  Instead, it suffers a minor bump down to the second position.  Regardless, Green Day has followed up American Idiot – which was hailed as their masterpiece – with an even better album.  They have really stretched out for this record, painting no less interesting a story than they did on their previous album.  The packaging is like a storybook, and the disc follows suit.  From beginning to end, 21st Century Breakdown tears it up and lays it out slowly in equal measure – and sometimes in the same song.  By the end of the album, the tone-setting title track has been followed up by what is one of the best concept albums in perhaps a decade.  “East Jesus Nowhere” and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” are driving, unstoppably angry scorchers.  “21 Guns” and “Restless Heart Syndrome” are more subtle, beautiful tracks.  “21st Century Breakdown,” “Peacemaker,” “American Eulogy,” “See the Light,” and just about every other track on the album contributes in a similar but significant way to the overall theme of the whole.  Then there is “Know Your Enemy;” the decision to promote this is proof positive that boneheaded rock really does still sell.

Number One:

Forget and Not Slow Down – Relient K:

This has been a year of unexpected releases, not the least of which were noted below in Elvis Costello’s acoustic release, the Arctic Monkeys’ masterful album, and the Fruit Bats’ brilliant record.  It is fitting, then, that Relient K should score the number one album of the year with a release – not unlike The Ruminant Band – that I expected to like, not love.  And yet I love this album.  Forget and Not Slow Down is one of the most entertaining, energetic, and thoughtful post-breakup albums that I’ve had the pleasure to hear.  In many ways – and this is practically sacrilege – I would place this album in the company of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full, to name a couple.  It is certainly more focused as an artistic expression than an album like Ben Folds’ Way to Normal could ever be.  Matthew Thiessen isolated himself from society to work on this album, and the result is clear: the best Relient K album to date.  To be fair, I wasn’t a fan from the start, but it appears that I’ve become a huge fan just as the band has faded into the background, this outstanding record being ignored by just about all critics this year.  What have they missed?  They’ve missed “Part of It,” a somber and catchy song at the same time – a difficult combination to pull off.  They’ve missed “Therapy,” a song that I wish I could have available on many a similar drive through the country.  They’ve missed the beauty of “Savannah” and the bitter, bile-fueled “Sahara,” the blending of the tracks made possible by the intros and the outros, and a powerful pairing in the final two tracks.  Simply put, this is the year’s best album.